Joint effort to rescue a lake

BANGALORE: Residents of Puttenahalli near JP Nagar, under the Puttenahalli Neighbourhood Lake Improvement trust (PNLIT), on Friday, came together with Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike to clean the lake. A private firm was roped in to provide solutions to clean the lake without affecting the ecology.

The Puttenahalli lake was polluted and cleaning it was a challenge; for no cleaning agents could be used in fear of affecting the bird population. PNLIT and BBMP then joined hands with Enzen water solutions to experiment with Nano Nutrient Solution to clean the lake.Head of Enzen water solutions Easwar P said, “We rejuvenated the water through natural measures. The Nano Nutrient Solutions catalyses the growth of dissolved oxygen. We tried this experiment on 15,000 litres of water. Our test results proved to be positive and we will soon be working on the whole lake.”Earlier, a group of residents in Puttenahalli came together to clean the local lake. Thus, PNLIT was formed.They approached BBMP to clean the lake several times. A member of PNLIT, Usha Rajagopalan said, “We approached the BBMP in 2009 to clean the lake. Initially, it was hard to get their attention but we didn’t give up. Innumerable phone calls and letters later, they responded in 2010. When we joined hands with BBMP, they were helpful in cleaning the lake.”While BBMP cleaned the lake, the residents supported their work by planting trees around the lake. Usha said, “With the help of volunteers, we planted over 125 trees. After the lake was cleaned, we planted 100 more. Now there are over 220 trees around the lake and we maintain them regularly.”

A BBMP official Chandrashekar said, “We divided this project into two phases. The first one was to prevent littering by fencing the entire lake. Simultaneously, we planned to develop a children’s park around the lake in the near future. We laid a pathway and installed benches around the lake to make it people-friendly. In the second phase, we planned to redirect the sewage from flowing into the lake. We have requested Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board officials to look into this issue. We will be soon be installing lights around the lake.”It was a change to see officials work in tandem with the residents.